All passengers on the Russian flight from Egypt died when the plane crashed in the Sinai peninsula Saturday, the Russian embassy said in a statement, reports AFP from Moscow.

"Unfortunately, all passengers of Kogalymavia flight 9268 Sharm El Shaikh - Saint Petersburg have died. We issue condolences to family and friends," said a message on the embassy's Facebook page, referring to the flight carrying 217 passengers and seven crew.

he Egyptian government said there were 217 passengers aboard the plane that crashed, including 214 Russians and three Ukrainians.

There were 138 women, 62 men and 17 children aboard, according to the passenger list, said the statement. There was no information about the nationalities of the seven crew members.

The ill-fated airliner was an 18-years old Airbus 321, the government said in the statement.

The plane had arrived in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm Al Shaikh at 17.30 Cairo time Friday and departed Saturday morning.

Egyptian authorities have retrieved the bodies of at least 100 people killed in a Russian passenger plane crash in Egypt, state media reported on Saturday.

The bodies have been flown from North Sinai to Cairo, while body parts of other victims are being collected for identification, Al Ahram newspaper reported, quoting medical sources in North Sinai.

There were 224 people aboard the aircraft when it crashed in a mountainous area near the city of Al Arish in North Sinai, according to Egyptian aviation authorities. Among the dead were 17 children, the head of Egypt's civil aviation authority said.

The pilot of the Russian plane with 224 people aboard had asked Egyptian aviation authorities for an emergency landing shortly after departure from an airport at the Red Sea resort city of Sharm Al Shaikh in South Sinai, newspaper Al Ahram reported, citing an unnamed aviation official.

"The captain of the plane requested permission to land at the nearest airport because of a problem in the wireless device. Then contact was the lost with the plane and disappeared from the radar," the official said.

Egyptian search and rescue team members sent to scour the crash site have heard voices in a section of the crashed Russian plane, an officer on the scene told Reuters.

"There is another section of the plane with passengers inside that the rescue team is still trying to enter and we hope to find survivors especially after hearing pained voices of people inside," said the officer, who requested anonymity.